The Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program should produce 600 jobs for youths by summer’s end, but the mayor hopes to increase that number next year.
Porschia Davis, the city’s Youth and Young Adult assistant program coordinator, announced Aug. 15 that the city has hired 550 youth so far this summer, the same number employed last year.
A number of participants in the city program — which links young people with employers — also “committed to be peer leaders,” Davis told the Evanston City Council. “These students gave up their Saturdays and commuted to downtown Chicago,” she said. Some attended workshops dealing with mental health awareness, how to build healthy relationships and conflict resolution, she said, in order to better work with their peers.
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said the city hopes to hire 1,000 youths next summer, a figure that “will have a tremendous impact on violence in Evanston,” she said.
Tisdahl recently said she has been going on late-night walks in neighborhoods with the city’s youth outreach workers, stopping at homes and talking with residents — and the need for jobs is a top concern.
“To have young people out on the street without resumes, without experience interviewing, is what is harming them and all of us,” she said. “The impact of a summer job for a teenager on earning power for the rest of their lives is pretty fantastic.”
Tisdahl praised the program’s accomplishments, noting the “absolute marvelous” planning that went into it. The city’s Youth and Young Adult Division, in partnership with the Youth Job Center of Evanston, held job training readiness sessions throughout February and March, leading up to the annual job fair in March.
“What you’re going to see a year from now is going to be even better,” she said.
Awards were handed out on Aug. 15 in three categories: outstanding service, most improved and perfect attendance.
Alliyah Rumbolt-Lemond, 16, received her award in the most improved category. She worked at the library last year.
This year she worked for public works at the city service center as part of a community improvement crew, she said.
She saw a difference from one year to the next. “This year I became more of a leader and I became proactive and kind of set the pace and tone,” she said.
As for the job, “we would clean alleys, paint poles, if there was an event that happened we would clean that up. We cleaned up on the Fourth of July. We walked in the back of the parade and cleaned up. So basically we were trying to keep Evanston as clean as possible,” she said.
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